Mystery Contras Free 29 Americans

MANAGUA, NICARAGUA — Twenty-nine U.S. peace activists, captured by a band of men who said they were Nicaraguan rebels, were freed unharmed Thursday, said a woman speaking for the organization.

The group, members of Witness for Peace who were protesting American policies in Central America, were released after 29 hours of captivity under unusual circumstances inside Costa Rica.

``They are free,`` said Sharon Hostetler of Witness for Peace at a press conference in Managua 30 minutes after the group radioed from the shores of the San Juan River, where they had been forced to disembark Wednesday from their 50-foot barge.

They had been sailing down the river, which forms part of the frontier between Nicaragua and Costa Rica, in what they called a ``peace flotilla.``

Witness for Peace describes itself as a grass-roots Christian movement formed in 1983 to oppose the Reagan administration`s policy in Central America, especially in Nicaragua.

Hostetler said everyone aboard was safe and that they said they had been treated well. Members of the group, which included several clergymen, nuns and 12 to 15 journalists, ranged in age from 23 to 80.

A Carmelite priest, Rev. Peter Hinde, 61, a native of Chicago`s South Side, was among those freed. ``He`s been in refugee camps in El Salvador, Nicaruaga and Honduras,`` said Rev. Murray Phelan, provincial officer for the Chicago province of the Carmelite religious order. ``We can`t keep track of him, but we don`t consider that a flaw--that`s what he`s been commissioned to do.``

Hostetler said the protesters radioed that they had been held by armed men whom they identified as an independent group of anticommunist Nicaraguans but who said they had nothing to do with the anti-Sandinista rebels fighting under the maverick contra Eden Pastora.

Witness for Peace initially charged that the protesters were first threatened by and later captured by Pastora`s forces. They said the barge was fired on during the takeover. It was unclear exactly who might form such an independent rebel group.

Who actually held the protesters could not immediately be determined, but some observers suggested that the group may have agreed to say the armed men were not allied with Pastora as part of a deal for their release.

Reports on the events in the southern part of the country during the last two days were provided by the Witness for Peace office in Managua, based on radio communications with the group.

During the radio contact, which occurred at about 12 p.m. (1 p.m. Chicago time) Thursday, the group reported that a meeting was underway between some of the protesters and their captors, Hostetler said. At the time, she said, the group still believed Pastora`s forces were holding them.

Warren Armstrong, the radio operator, then reported that the meeting had ended and that the group would be allowed to go free. ``They call themselves an independent anticommunist group of Nicaraguans,`` Armstrong radioed, according to Hostetler.

She said the group of protesters had met briefly with the leader of the rebels, who was not identified, and that ``they prayed with them and were promised a peaceful voyage.``

Subsequently, Armstrong reported that the members of the group were boarding the barge and that they were embarking. At 1:30 p.m., a Costa Rican Civil Guard helicopter pulled the boat over and told the protesters that they had been searching for the group since Wednesday.

It was not explained why the Costa Ricans, who were searching for the group with U.S. diplomats, could not find the protesters; they were regularly reporting their position to Managua by radio.

If they had found them in the presence of the guerrillas, however, they would clearly have had to admit that the rebels were inside their territory.

A spokeswoman for the U.S. Embassy in Managua said U.S. officials here knew little more about the protest group and the circumstances surrounding their seizure, but that ``we are glad they are free.``

She confirmed that the diplomats from the U.S. Embassy in San Jose had been with Costa Rican officials during the search, but that she did not think there had been any contact between them and the group.

After the murder of U.S. marines in El Salvador in June, President Reagan charged that Nicaragua was a center for terrorist activity in Central America and that his administration would hold the Nicaraguans responsible for any future terrorist attacks against U.S. citizens in Central America.

When the journey began from Managua Monday, there was only scant attention paid to it by the press. After the incident on the river, however, scores of reporters began covering the event.

At the end of the press conference Thursday, a Witness for Peace official remarked about how happy they were to be deluged by reporters.